Cold War Experiments

My husband, Isaac Wexler, joined the Army in 1943 and served until 1945. He was honorably discharged with five battle stars. During his service, he and others in his unit were subjected to a test that, I believe, altered his life. As part of an experiment, he and other young soldiers were not asked but told to enter a room wearing a gas mask, remove the mask, breathe in the gas in the room, and then leave. He was not sure what he was breathing. We married in 1947, and shortly before the birth of our third child my husband started to have trouble walking. The condition became progressively worse. Soon he needed a cane, then a quad cane, then a walker, and, finally, a wheelchair. He went to many hospitals, including the National Institutes of Health, all of which gave him the same diagnosis: myelopathy of the cervical spinal cord, of unknown origin. When he was thirty-three years old, I was told that he would not live for more than five years. His condition continued to deteriorate. Although he survived to the age of seventy-eight, he was completely dependent on others to do for him what he should have been able to do himself. Incidentally, when I requested his medical records from the Veterans Administration I was told that they had been lost in a fire in St. Louis. Khatchadourian’s article was a breath of fresh air to me, and I am certain it was to others who have suffered as we have.

Mary Wexler

Passaic, N.J.

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